The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-11
STRANGE STORY OF MR.. BECK.
He Has for Twelve Years Worn the
Paint and Feathers of a Sioux.

He is q sort or Tip Van Wmkle, having re-
turned to civilization after twelve years,
not exactly of sleep, but, as he says, of life
as captive among the Indians His bro
ken English, vagabondish appearance and
somewhat dilapidated attire also suggest q
resemblance of his case to that of Rip Van
Wrinkle His story has been told officially
10 the Commissioners of Indian Affairs and
unofficially to a reporter. In brief, the
story is that he and his family were can
tured by the Sioux in Deadwood Gorge In
wife and children and held in
made his escape this spring He
believes his wife and children are still held
as captives, and has invoked the aid of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to find
them While captive among the Sioux he
was required to marry a squaw, so he has
in the Wild West at the present time a red
wife and four papooses. In case Beck does
not succeed in recovering the pale-face Mrs.
Beck he wants the Indian office to help him
to a reunion with the red-skin Mrs Beck.
So the situation is somewhat interesting
Beck is about so years of age, has a worn
expression and a watery look about the
ewes, and general appearance of tough
ness. due undoubtedly to twelve wears of
dieting on jerked buffalo meat He is ap-
parently in destitute circumstances He
talks in broken English, which is the more
difficult to understand as he occasionally
throws in a sentence or two of the Sioux
dialect.
SEBASTIAN BECK's STORY
His story, as he told it to a reporter, is
substantially as follows: Sebastian Beck is
native of Hohenzollern, Prussia. He en-
listed III the United States army Aug. IL,
1867, served in Company E, Ninth Infantry
and was honorably discharged at the expi-
ration of his term at Fort Laramie, Neb..
in August, 1870. After his term expired he
returned home to Philadelphia He re-
manned there until the spring of 1875, when
he joined q party of swenty-five families
that emigrated to the Deadwood Gorge, in
the Black Hills, i'll search of gold, Beck
took his family with him, consisting of his
wife, daughter, Annie, aged Is; a daugh-
ter, Lucy, aged IS, and boy, Anthony,
aged II. The party of miners were quite
successful at the start. The camp where
their families lived was situated about three
quarters of mile from the point where the
men were mining. In about three months
they had accumulated over $1,000 as
the result of their industry. Then thew
moved to work anothe- vein about three
miles away.
CAPTURED BY THE SIOUX.
On July % band of Sioux, numbering
about 5000 warriors swept down upon the
gorge while the men were at the diggngs
separated from their women and children
The whole party was captured-the men by
one band, the women and children by an
other. The men were blindfolded and Sc
curely bound upon Indian ponies, and thus
made to savel for ten days The other
band of Indiens took the women and chill
dren in different direction and since that
day Beck has not heard from or seen his
wife and children. His wife, Beck under
stands, was taken away by Chief Black
Moons band. He suppoSes that she and her
daughters have been married to Indians as
is the custom with the Sioux Beck tells
an interesting story of his twelve years of
life among tn Sioux. He was taken first,
with the otfer male captives to the Rose
bud country. After being held prisoner
eleven months he was married to an Indian
squaw, Cheyenne woman who was in cap
tivity.
HIS REDSKIN BRIDE.
This was Monica, young squaw, then
not Is years old, and, Beck says, a great
beauty. He was compelled to marry and to
adopt the customs of the Indians or die So
he made the best of it, and became much at
tached to his Cheyenne squaw. Monica is
now at Fort Laramie, in the land of the set
ting sun, surrounded by four little half
breed Becks, waiting for her pale-face brave
to return to her. When first with the In
dians ne was treated roughly by them They
had an unpleasant habit of circling about
him IN their war Dances with their scalpinp
knives uplifted, and of fourishing their
tomahawks ever his head Within few
weeks, however, the redskins changed their
treatment. Beck and his fellow prisoners
We're clad in Indian attire Beck was
adopted into the tribe when he took an In
dian wife He was first put to trial by
being thrown from rock into deep water
lie showed his skill and strength by swim
ming from the water and climbing the face
OF the precipitous rock to place of safety
The Indians howled and crooned and danced
Wild kind of q jig about his dripping fig
ule, and Beck was thus initiated as a mem
Der, but not exactly an active member, for
he was always kept under watch and never
fully trusted.
PAINTED RED BY HIS SQUAw
When he had been thus baptized he was
turned over to his squaw, who helped the
thlng along by painting her husband cop
perry red from the crown of his head down
TO his toes. Then he was given buckskin
@gglngs, wig of raven hair which had
been forcibly taken or lifted" from the
SKull OF some redskin enemy of the Sioux,
ana fuu equipment of primitive weapons,
q tomahawk, knife and bow and arrow
Nip obuCh lillO Uile UDdb
pound his wig on. Plain Mr.. Beck emerged
from all this in outward semblance Sioux
warrior, though any visitor to the tribe that
ran across an Indian brave volubly lament
ing ms fate in broken English of the Fritz
Emmett style, might have been greatly
amazed a. at the singular combination. The
SIOUX, however, seemed to like the style of
we s,N warrior, and they gave him the name of
,, louch-tbe- Cloud and called him a chief
ne with other prisoners were required to
practice with the bow and arrow, but were
Iot allowed to have guns These mita-
Ioh Indians lived in every way like the
genuine redskin, and occasionally wore the
wal paint, their faces being besmeared with
yellow stripes and bars Beck's chief was
sitting Bull, the great Sioux warrior
HE WITNESSED THE CUSTER MASSACRE.
After few months on the Rosebud the
uioe started on their travels, and it was on
oillS expedition that they encountered and
aalillihiiated Gen. Clusters command on the
hittle Big Horn a fight that Beck witnessed
rom distance. The Indians were in
lorlned by spies, Beck says, that Custer was
eoIllhg The redskins were formed on the
ii.o.ltiltain-top awaiting the coming of Custer
Al the valley below. The entrance was by
d canon, through which only four cavalry
men could ride abreast. Sitting Bull sat
vi ms horse, on the mountains, where he
TT1lud get good view, spy-glaSs in hand
men the old chief muttered in adime novel
s'yie, "lla! Custer. Goodn He at once dis
pOSCl OF biS man Ha built nm cau1n fires